AI Understanding is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit education platform. We share this disclosure so readers understand exactly how the site is funded and how that relates to our editorial work. The short version: none of the channels below can buy coverage, a ranking, a rating, or a kind word.
How we make money
These are all of the channels currently in use. Every one of them is listed here, including the ones that bring in little or nothing in a given month.
- Donations. One-time and recurring gifts from readers that support free public AI education.Can influence coverage: no. Donors receive no editorial input, no advance review, and no coverage of their own projects in exchange for a gift.
- Certificate fees. A fee paid by learners who pass the required quiz threshold and choose to claim a certificate. Learning material stays free either way. Can influence coverage: no. Certificate buyers are individual learners; paying changes nothing about what we publish, and never changes a quiz result.
- Tool listing fees. Paid submissions to our AI tools directory, which go through editorial review before any listing is published. Can influence coverage: no. A fee buys a review, not an outcome: submissions are rejected, and a paid listing cannot change ranking position, recommendation wording, or what a comparison page says.
- Affiliate links. Commissions on some outbound tool links when a reader signs up or purchases. Not every tool card is an affiliate relationship. Can influence coverage: no. We choose which tools are worth covering first, and only then check whether a program exists. Commission rates are never a selection or ordering criterion.
- Paid job listings. Standard and featured placements on our AI jobs board. Nonprofit and educational roles are posted free. Can influence coverage: no. A paid listing is a labeled slot on the jobs board and nothing else. It buys no article, no newsletter mention, and no tools-directory treatment for the employer.
- Data and API licensing. Paid plans for programmatic access to our news, release, funding, regulation, and glossary datasets, documented on our developer page. A free tier stays available. Can influence coverage: no. Licensees receive the same data everyone else does. They cannot request additions, removals, or edits to a dataset, and we do not sell reader or student data at any price.
- Sponsorship and underwriting acknowledgments. Labeled slots in the newsletter, the daily briefing, the podcast, the tools directory, and the jobs board, with rates and terms published onour sponsorship page. Can influence coverage: no. A sponsor buys a slot, never editorial. Sponsors do not see stories before publication, cannot approve or veto anything, and cannot have a story about them written, softened, or removed.
- Institutional licenses. Annual licenses for schools, districts, libraries, and employers that add cohort dashboards, bulk certificates, and named support. The curriculum itself remains free to individual teachers and learners. Can influence coverage: no. A license buys administrative features. It does not buy a say in what the guides teach or what our newsroom reports.
- Grants. Foundation, corporate, and public grants, plus in-kind programs such as advertising credits for nonprofits. Can influence coverage: no. We do not accept grants that condition funding on coverage, framing, or the conclusion of a piece of research. If a funder's own field is the subject of something we publish, that relationship is disclosed in the piece.
Editorial independence, and how it is enforced
Saying revenue does not buy coverage is easy. These are the specific mechanisms that make it true:
- Published editorial standards. Tools, guides, comparisons, and news are evaluated against the same written criteria regardless of partnership status. Vendors and sponsors cannot pay to change a ranking position, a recommendation, or coverage. See our 編輯標準.
- No generated images. Story images come only from the verified source page. We do not generate imagery to make a story look better funded or more dramatic; a story with no usable source image runs without one.
- Partner labeling. Paid and commissionable relationships are labeled where they appear: affiliate links carry a sponsored attribute and an on-page disclosure, paid tool listings and job placements are marked as such, and sponsor slots are labeled as sponsorship rather than presented as editorial.
- 贊助防火牆。 贊助商、被授權人、授予者和 API 客戶沒有發布前審查、沒有批准權，也沒有能力要求添加、更改或刪除故事。贊助是按時段和日期作為庫存出售的，絕不會在故事中提及。
- 公開更正。 When we get something wrong we correct it on the record rather than quietly editing it, including when the error favored a partner. See 我們的更正日誌.
Affiliate links
如果讀者註冊或購買，某些出站連結可能會產生佣金。這不會增加您支付的價格。我們的目標是先確定有用的工具，然後揭露何時可能存在商業關係。
Refund and reversal effects
在某些情況下，佣金或付款可以撤銷（例如取消、退款或退款）。這不會改變我們的編輯標準或揭露義務。
Our commitment to readers
我們致力於透明度、通俗易懂的語言和公眾信任。如果您在我們的資金揭露中發現任何不清楚的地方，請聯絡我們，我們將澄清。
聯絡我們
有關本披露的問題可發送至 [email protected].
上次審核時間：2026 年 9 月。